Donald Trump’s defense team put on a case today that is being described as a Saturday Night Live skit. Attorney Bruce Castor was first up, but what he delivered was mostly a word salad. NPR writes, Castor “opened Trump’s defense with a long-winded, nonlinear opening argument, claiming that the effort to try Trump was nothing more than an emotionally-driven partisan response to the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol.”
Most of Castor’s lengthy remarks actually had nothing to do with Trump or the siege on Capitol Hill.
Castor even worked against his client at one point, saying the American people fairly chose Joe Biden to be president. Since the election, Trump has falsely claimed he won the election.
Alan Dershowitz was one of the attorneys on Trump’s legal defense team during the impeachment trial in 2020. Castor’s opening remarks even left him confused. He told Newsmax, “That’s not the kind of argument I would have made, I’ll tell you that.”
It appeared Castor was just filling time until defense attorney David Schoen was ready to present his remarks. Castor even said, “I’ll be quite frank with you, we changed what we were going to do on account that we thought the House managers’ presentation was well done.”
While Schoen delivered a more coherent argument, he was criticized right off the bat for a remark suggesting a conviction will lead to more violence.
“They tell us that they have to hold this trial in the name of unity – but they don’t want unity. … This trial will tear this country apart in a way we have only seen maybe once before in our nations history.”
Both attorneys also suggested Trump should perhaps be investigated, just not in Congress.
Castor winds down his very bizarre speech by daring the DOJ to arrest Trump pic.twitter.com/jmoxdIU6Pm
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 9, 2021